Place to Stay
by Zombie Raptor
Summary: Ichigo, along with Yuzu comes up with a ridiculous plan to try and get closer with Orihime. Kinda completely lost inspiration for the story.
1. Chapter 1

Ichigo sighed as he walked down the sidewalk. He still wasn't quite sure this was the best idea, but Yuzu had talked him into it. Yes he liked her. Yes, he knew she liked him. However, this entire approach seemed a bit odd to him. It was him who thought of it in the first place, but he hadn't planned on actually going through with it. In fact the entire idea had started off as a joke, but as soon as he told Yuzu it all became real. Yes it was all his younger sister's fault that he was in this position.

Taking a deep breath as he appeared at the door. After a few seconds Ichigo knocked on the door. A orange haired girl opened the door "Ichigo, what are you doing here?" asked a surprised Orihime with oven mitts on.

"Well I was wondering if I could stay with you for a couple weeks." Ichigo stated. Orihime's cheeks started to turn red. Ichigo was actually asking to live in her apartment. "I mean I can go ask Chad or someone else if it's too much trouble." he said seeing her embarrassment. He was having a bit of difficulty seeing how this plan would actually work. A plan starting from a joke didn't seem like a great plan.

"W-wh-what, no, no it's fine you can stay here as long as you want. You're my friend after all." Orihime replied, looking down towards her feet with her face turning even more red.

"Thanks." Ichigo said with a wide smile. "By the way, if you're cooking something shouldn't you get back to it?" he said seeing the apron she was wearing.

Orihime looked up in surprise, and then panic. "Ah, I completely forgot I was making dinner." she said in a panic, running back to her kitchen. "Bring your stuff in and close the front door" she yelled from the kitchen.

Ichigo picked up his bag and brought it inside, closing the door behind him. It was good to see that the apartment was relatively clean and completely normal. No weird soul reaper stuff or anything. Poking his head into the kitchen he took a look at what she was making. As usual it was something a bit weird, but of course in this case he definitely couldn't say anything about that.

"Oh Ichigo, do you want to have dinner with me?" Orihime asked.

"No, I brought some food with me. I don't want to impose too much, and besides you weren't expecting me."

"Oh, what did you bring?"

"A few sandwiches and some rice." he replied. It was a simple meal, but it would last him for tonight and for school tomorrow. Although even if it was simple he couldn't claim that he made it, that was Yuzu. Ichigo gave a mental sigh. Why couldn't Yuzu be a little more like Karin and not butt into his personal life. Sure Karin had her moments, but that was generally when she actually had good reason to be worried about his wellbeing.

"I made enough for two. I like to bring what I make for dinner as lunch the next day. We can share this meal and we can share the food you brought for lunch tomorrow." Orihime said happily.

"Oh ok." Ichigo replied a bit lamely. Pulling the food out of his pack, he put it into the fridge. "Uh, did you make any rice tonight?" Ichigo asked

Orihime shook her head "It's too much trouble most of the time since I'm normally cooking other stuff."

"You don't have a rice cooker?" Ichigo asked a bit surprised. Even if Orihime did like cooking weird things, not having a rice cooker was a bit odd.

"No, it broke a while ago and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one."

"Why don't we eat the rice I brought. It probably won't be very good by tomorrow." Ichigo suggested.

Orihime smiled and nodded. This felt good to have Ichigo living with her, even if it had only been a minute or two. They were already planning what they would eat for dinner, and what they would bring to school tomorrow. Orihime sighed happily. "I'll get you settled in after we eat." she told him as she brought whatever she had made out of the oven. Looking at it, Ichigo couldn't quite tell what was in it, though it looked like it had some bean paste, jelly of some sort, bananas, peanut butter, cheese, onions, and squid. Below that he couldn't see anything.

After Orihime dished them up some food, he steeled himself. He didn't want to hesitate once the food came. That would be rude. After Orihime set the plate down on the table, he looked up "Um, should I start eating now, or do you normally do something first?"

"No, I usually eat in front of the TV, but since I have company now I figured we could eat at the table." she told him happily.

Ichigo took a bite of whatever was in front of him, and was mildly surprised. It wasn't bad. It was by no means his favorite food, and he would of prefered whatever Yuzu cooked back at his house, but it didn't taste awful like he thought it would have.

"What do you think?" Orihime asked a bit nervously. "I know most people think the food I make is kind of weird."

"I won't lie, it's not my favorite, but it actually does taste kinda good." Ichigo said with a smile. He didn't think lying about it would be the best idea. He wanted to have a mutual trust between them.

"To be honest, the reason I started making food like this was because after my brother died I didn't know how to cook, and what ingredients went it what. After a few days of eating just rice, the rice cooker broke and I decided to try to make something. I just kinda tossed in whatever was lying around." Orihime admitted. She hadn't actually told anyone this since it was a bit embarrassing.

"If you want I can teach you how to make some normal stuff. I only really know from what Yuzu makes, but it's still something. Besides it's good to be creative when cooking, food will get boring otherwise." Ichigo said grinning. Orihime smiled. No one had supported her cooking like that. They just called it weird, and generally didn't eat it. The only person that did seem to like her cooking, besides Ichigo, was Rangiku. It was nice to have someone want to help improve her cooking, but not really change it.

After they were finished eating, Orihime went and picked up Ichigo's bag. "Hey, I can't let you carry that. You're letting me stay here for free, if anything I want to help you with stuff." Ichigo said taking his bag from her. Orihime smiled and nodded.

"The room is right next to mine, so feel free to pop in if you need anything." Orihime told him.

After putting his stuff down, Ichigo headed back out. Walking into the kitchen he saw Orihime cleaning up. "Let me help, it's the least I can do."

Orihime nodded and asked him to clean the dishes while she took care of the surrounding area. After about five minutes they were both finished. "So, um do you wanna go out, watch TV, or go to bed." Ichigo asked a bit awkwardly. He didn't really know about what she normally did, and he didn't want to disrupt her schedule.

"Uh do you mind waiting here for a second, I wanna go," she paused and looked at the altar that she still had. She didn't really know what to call it since her brother had moved on, but she didn't want Ichigo to hear what she was saying.

Seeing where she was looking Ichigo smiled "Of course. I'm just going to head to my room and start putting some stuff away." he replied as he headed towards his room.

Orihime sighed. She didn't know why she still did this, but it made her feel good. She started talking to the shrine and explained everything about what was happening with Ichigo moving in and living with her.

Ichigo on the other hand was putting his clothes in the drawers in the room. After putting a few personal objects around the room, Ichigo peeked out from his room to see if Orihime was still doing whatever she was doing. Orihime saw Ichigo looking out of his room and waved him over. "Come on, we can watch TV now." she said with the ever present smile on her face.

Ichigo sat down on the couch next to Orihime. Looking at the TV he noticed that she was watching the same things his little sisters watched. He smiled as he saw Orihime singing along with the intro. She was a bit old for the show, but he couldn't say he was surprised. Of course it was still kind of cute.

After around two hours, Orihime had fallen asleep against Ichigo. Ichigo smiled and felt his eyes flutter a few times. He didn't want to wake up Orihime, but he figured it would be better for both of them to sleep in a bed. After a few thoughts of why he should carry her to her bed, he fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Ichigo groaned as he woke up. Looking down he saw Orihime sleeping on him. He vaguely remember falling asleep on the couch. Grabbing the remote, Ichigo turned the TV off and shook Orihime awake.

Orihime yawned and started stretching "Mmm, what time is it?" she asked sleepily. For a few seconds Orihime was a bit confused. First she realized that someone, obviously, was in the house with her. Then she remembered that Ichigo had asked to live with her for a while.

Looking over at the clock Ichigo jumped off the couch, startling Orihime "Damn, we're late for school." he told her, pulling her off the couch.

The surprised Orihime woke up quite quickly after that. Both Ichigo and Orihime quickly cleaned up and changed their clothes. Hurrying out of the apartment, Orihime smiled "It looks like we'll be on time." she said happily as they walked down the street.

Ichigo groaned and searched his backpack to have his suspicion confirmed "We forgot to pack the lunches." he said with a groan. "Lemme borrow the keys and I'll go back and get them, I'll catch up with you in a minute or two."

Orihime nodded and gave him her keys. They were only a few blocks away so it wasn't a huge problem. "Oh, and uh do you mind not telling anyone that I'm living with you? It's kinda embarrassing that I have to rely on a friend for a place to live for a while."

"Of course, no one will find out you're living with me. I'll keep your, or I guess our secret." she said with a big smile on her face. Ichigo said thanks and started running back towards her apartment. Orihime frowned as Ichigo went out of sight. She had really wanted to tell Tatsuki that Ichigo was living with her. In fact she was so excited that she wanted to tell all of her friends, Tatsuki just took priority in people she would tell first.

After a few minutes of walking, Ichigo ran up from behind her "Here you go." he said panting a bit, handing her a lunch bag.

"So I never did ask, why do you need a place to stay? Did something happen with your family?" Orihime asked curiously. Ichigo's family seemed pretty close. Ichigo always wanted to protect his sisters, and his dad was overcompensating. It seemed like they all cared about each other.

Ichigo mentally groaned. Even though he had come up with an excuse beforehand, he still wasn't all that certain about it. "Well it's nothing too bad. I got in a fight with them about some stuff, and my room kinda ended up getting destroyed. I guess I need a while to cool down before I head back."

Orihime tilted her head. For some reason, she thought something was odd, but dismissed it. " _Whatever happens, this is my chance. There's no better time to get someone than when they live with you._ " she told herself with a determined look.

Seeing the look, Ichigo raised an eyebrow "Is something wrong Orihime? You're making kind of an odd face."

Looking over with a blank face, Orihime stared at Ichigo for a few seconds "W-what, no, I was just thinking about if I flowers." she replied laughing hysterically before walking in front of him. Her cheeks had turned bright red as she berated herself for what she said. At this moment she realized that she wasn't all that great at making up excuses on the spot.

Ichigo grinned after Orihime rushed past him. Sure she was caring, affectionate, and wanted to help her friends, but she was a complete weirdo. However that was one of the things he liked about her. It was always amusing to see her bring food to school, although he actually didn't expect it to taste as good as it did. Half of the time when she would day dream she'd end up doing weird stuff, and the list goes on. It mostly made her seem cute and funny, but because of her looks she was quite popular with all the guys.

Ichigo sighed. He thought she was hot, but stuff like that was always in the back of his mind before, and he never knew she liked him. It was Rangiku that actually pointed out all of the different obvious clues that Orihime liked him. Of course now he liked her because of her personality and all of her quirks, not just her looks. Not to mention his family all liked her, although the cooking may be a bit hard for them to get used to, but they just generally liked her. Ichigo's face flushed as he realized what he was thinking.

"Man, I can't believe that I'm already starting to think so far ahead." Ichigo muttered quietly.

The school day passed by relatively quickly. It felt relatively normal. As he left the school, Orihime quickly caught up with him, and they walked back to her apartment in relative silence.

Ichigo groaned. This plan was stupid. Why couldn't he just come out and tell Orihime that he liked her. Was he that much of a coward.

"What's wrong?" Orihime asked?

Ichigo sighed. "Look, Orihime, I lied to you. I didn't get in a fight with my family."

"That's great!" Orihime said, hugging him.

"Hey, wait. You didn't let me finish?"

"Because, if you didn't have a fight with your family, it means you wanted to come and live with me." Orihime said sniffling.

Ichigo put his arms around Orihime. "Want to go out and get something to eat."

Orihime nodded, smiling. She was happier than she had been in a long time. "What about the Soul Society?"

Ichigo shrugged. "They can wait."


End file.
